


Otherworld

by TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Anal Sex, Archaeology, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, M/M, Magical Realism, Oral Sex, Tampa Bay Lightning ensemble - Freeform, including some prospects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-07 23:16:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20825444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy/pseuds/TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy
Summary: University of Montreal Professor Alex Killorn’s dig in his family’s native region of Ireland is finally funded. He sets off to Ireland to continue a dig his grandfather started fifteen years ago, before his unexplained disappearance.In Ireland he meets Steven, a Toronto detective in Ireland on an information sharing and training assignment.As Steven re-opens Alex’s grandfather’s disappearance the people around Alex realize everything might not be what it seems on the surface.





	Otherworld

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blueorangecrush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/gifts).

> Hi!! I took a few different elements from your dear author letter and combined them. I hope you like it because I really enjoyed creating this world!!

“Alexander, we both know why you’re going to Ireland, and you’re a damn fool to do it!” Alex’s father roared, banging his fist on the table between them. 

It wasn’t anything Alex hadn’t seen or heard before, he was completely unphased by his father’s outburst. 

“Yes,” Alex said, calmly. “My dig was funded.”

“No,” Alex’s father yelled. “You want to waste your life just like your grandfather. They’re going to find you dead in a ditch just like him.”

Alex was quiet for a few moments. “They haven’t found him anywhere, dead or alive.”

“It’s been nearly fifteen years, Alex,” his father said, at a more reasonable volume. “What else could he be? He was there, in the cave, one minute, and gone the next.”

Alex cleared his throat and stood. “I’m going to Ireland. I’m going to conduct my dig. And yes, I’m going to check on the status of my grandfather’s missing person case.”

Alex turned and left his father’s house while his father yelled after him. His stop there on the way to the university had been professional courtesy, and maybe a little bit of gloating. He knew his father had been in the running for the same grant to continue a dig that had run out of funding in Wales. 

There was so much to do, checking permits, hiring grad students, leasing equipment, selecting undergrads, and several dozen other things before Alex could leave for Ireland, hopefully within the month. 

“Siri, start a list called Things to do Before Going to Ireland.”

Alex settled back in his seat on the British Airways 777 that was going to take him to Dublin. Then he would have a two and a half hour drive to the Caves of Keash where he would be conducting his dig. 

Brayden, one is his former students, was seated next to him, looking ready to go to sleep. 

They’d already flown from Montreal to New York with two of Alex’s more advanced grad students, Yanni and Ceddy. Others were to follow and Tyler and Ondrej had gone ahead a few days prior with the bulk of their gear. 

Brayden was asleep by the time the flight attendants finished their safety briefing and Alex had joined him by the time the plane hit cruising altitude. 

Sometime later Alex woke up to Yanni standing up and looking over the back of his seat and poking him. 

“Alex,” Yanni whispered again, louder. 

“What?” Alex hissed back. 

“Got an email from TJ and Pally,” Yanni said. 

Alex waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t. “Ok?”

“They’re having trouble with some locals. A bunch of our gear went missing from the site.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Yanni said as Alex reached under the seat in front of him to get his laptop from the backpack stowed there. 

Alex read the email from Tyler detailing how several locals hassled he and Ondrej, telling them that the caves shouldn’t be disturbed and that bad things would happen to them should they decide to move forward with the dig. 

When Tyler and Ondrej made it clear the dig was moving forward their gear had been stolen. They went to the local Guard office and made a report but the guards didn’t seem particularly concerned about the situation. 

Alex responded, letting Tyler know that he and Ondrej had done the right thing. He checked when the plane should be landing and gave them an ETA for the group and told them to lay low and avoid any confrontations with locals. 

Alex had a hard time falling asleep after he finished his email, he watched a movie and eventually drifted off with Brayden snoring softly next to him. 

Brayden slept the entire flight, Alex was pretty sure he hadn’t stirred at all. Not even the two times Alex had climbed over him to go to the bathroom. Alex had to poke him awake when it was time to put his seat into the upright position. Once he’d done that, he leaned against Alex and fell asleep again. 

Alex rolled his eyes, this wasn’t the first international flight he’d taken with Brayden. 

The group cleared customs easily, showing permits for their gear. Since Brayden had slept for the better part of the last 12 hours Alex made him drive to County Sligo in the big SUV they’d rented. 

Brayden drove them to the bed and breakfast the four of them would be staying in. 

Tyler and Ondrej met them at the car, to help unload the gear Alex had brought. 

“Let’s all meet in my room in 20,” Alex told the others when they parted ways in the hallway. 

Alex set a timer on his phone for eighteen minutes, otherwise he knew he would forget the guys were coming, and started unpacking. They were going to be there for months, luckily the bed and breakfast had halfway decent closet space and a large dresser in the bedroom area. The supplies for the dig he left in boxes in the sitting room area. 

Alex jumped when the timer went off on his phone. He turned it off and went to clean off the seating in the sitting room. His room was the only one that had come with the extra space, making it their de facto meeting place. 

There was a knock on the door, exactly on time, and Alex yelled that the door was open. Tyler and Ondrej let themselves in and left the door cracked so the rest of the guys could do the same. 

Once all six of them were sitting around Alex’s room Alex asked Tyler and Ondrej to tell them what happened. 

“This guy we met at the general store, he introduced himself as Declan Brennan, we told him why we were here and he started telling us we shouldn’t mess around with with the ‘beings’ in the caves and we would ”Get what was coming to us” if we went up there. So of course, we ignored him and hauled the gear up the hill and started mapping and marking areas of interest outside the caves. We left there when it was getting dark then we went back up the next morning, just after sunrise, all our gear was gone, along with our marks on the areas of interest.”

Alex nodded along, he remembered a Brennan that had given his grandfather a bit of trouble when he came to start the excavations here fifteen years ago. He wasn’t sure if it was the same old man, or possibly his son or grandson. Brennan was an extremely common name in this county. Just like Killorn. 

Tyler had continued. “We went to the closest Guard station and made a report but the Guard we talked to kind of shrugged it off, like he didn’t know what we expected to happen. He did make the report though, I have our copy here.”

Ondrej handed Alex a copy of the report the Guard had made. 

Alex looked the report over, quickly, it had all of the same information that Tyler had just given him. 

“Have you heard from anyone about it today?” Alex asked. 

Tyler and Ondrej shook their heads. 

Alex checked the time, it was still mid morning. “I’ll go up there and see if I can find anything out. If we have to replace all of that gear it’s really going to cut into our budget.”

“Do you want us to keep laying low?” Ondrej asked. 

“No, I’m going to take Tyler with me, I want you to take everyone else up the hill and start re-marking the areas of interest. Brayden has a map that shows where my grandfather’s dig was and where they found things. Just stay out of the caves for now. I don’t have an updated map and I know they’ve progressed in mapping them since I was here as a kid. Bray, while you’re up there visit with the tour guides and see if any of them would be interested in helping us out. Use my name if you need to, Killorn roots are strong in this county.”

Tyler drove the two of them to the Guard station and went inside with Alex. Alex spoke with the desk supervisor. He typed the report number into his computer and Alex had to stop himself from rolling eyes. There was no way there were enough cases coming through this station that the Guard didn’t know everything there was to know about their report. 

“This case has been assigned to Detective Stamkos. If you want to have a seat I’ll fetch him for you,” the supervisor told Alex and Tyler, his accent so thick Alex was pretty sure he was exaggerating it on purpose. 

They sat down, expecting to be kept waiting for some time, but to their surprise a blond guy about Alex’s height came striding towards them. 

“I’m Detective Steven Stamkos,” the man said extending his hand to Alex first, then Tyler. 

Alex realized he was staring when Tyler elbowed him in the side. 

“You’re not Irish,” Alex said, dumbly. 

Steven chuckled. “No, I’m on loan from the Toronto Police Service. We have something of an exchange program,” Steven explained. 

“Oh, you’re Canadian, too,” Alex said. 

Tyler elbowed him again. 

“Yes,” the detective said, looking at Alex a little concerned. “You two are Canadian?”

“Nope, I’m American,” Tyler said. “He’s Canadian and despite his lapse in cognitive abilities he is Alex Killorn, a professor at the University of Montreal and I’m Tyler, one of his TAs. We came to find out if you have any leads on our missing archeological equipment.”

“Yeah,” Alex added aggressively, not helping his case in the slightest. 

“Stamkos,” a Guard called from near the desk. “A moment please.”

“Excuse me,” Steven said. 

As soon as Steven was out of earshot Tyler turned to Alex. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Alex felt his face go red. “He’s just… he’s really hot.”

Tyler snorted before running his hand over his face. “Please try to hold it together.”

Steven came back over. “Sorry about that, he was giving me an update on your case. We have a lead on your equipment. If you want to leave me a phone number I’ll be able to give you an update later.”

“We don’t have international plans on our phones, we are planning on getting some cheap phones to share among everyone on the dig but we haven’t had a chance yet. We’re staying at the bed and breakfast in Ballymote, do you know it?” Tyler asked when it became clear that Alex still wasn’t putting together rational thoughts. 

Tyler glanced at Alex, and elbowed him again when he saw he was practically devouring the detective with his eyes, and licking his lips. 

“Yes!” Steven said. “I’m actually staying there too!”

“Oh,” Tyler said. “Perfect.”

“I will give you an update over dinner. The food is wonderful, I’ve been missing it all week because I’ve been working late on a case.”

“We look forward to it,” Tyler said, grabbing Alex’s arm to lead him out of the station. 

Tyler let him go when they got outside. “I’m going to need you to get it together and stop drooling over the detective before dinner.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Alex argued. 

“It really was,” Tyler told him, pushing him towards the car.

“He really was pretty though, right?” Alex said. 

“Eh, not my type but he wasn’t bad,” Tyler said. “I wouldn’t say pretty thought. Handsome, yeah, I guess.”

Alex sighed. “Was it really that bad?”

“Yeah. I’m not entirely sure he noticed though.”

Alex was anxious about dinner, to say the least. He didn’t know what had come over him at the guard station but it was very unlike him to completely lose himself when someone was attractive. Tyler and Ondrej were both attractive, so were Bray and Ceddy, Yanni was positively beautiful but Alex certainly hadn’t lost the power of speech around them. Well, not because they were good looking at least, Yanni and Tyler had done some truly stupid things in the time Alex had know them that had left him speechless. 

Tyler had sent Alex to his room to “think about what he’d done”, which Alex didn’t think was very effective because now he was just overthinking. 

In the middle of the afternoon, Alex was woken up from a bad decision nap by knocking on his door. No one was staying there but Alex’s team and Steven so Alex hadn’t bothered to lock the door. Assuming it was Tyler, or one of the other guys Alex called, “Come in.”

Steven peeked his head around the door before letting himself in the room. 

“Oh, sorry to wake you,” Steven said. He powered on over Alex’s sputtering and pulling the sheet up to cover his bare chest. “We found what we assume is your gear and we need you to come identify it.”

Alex nodded and managed to speak finally. “T-T-Tyler. I, we, need him. He got all the equipment, so…”

“So he should be able to identify it,” Steven finished for Alex, shooting him a blinding smile. 

“Yeah,” Alex said softly. 

Alex was still sitting in bed, holding a sheet over his chest. 

“Well, if you want to get dressed I can take you over to where we found it,” Steven prodded. 

“Right! Yes!” Alex agreed. 

He expected Steven to step out of the room when he did so, but he didn’t. Alex was glad he’d slept in his underwear. 

Alex avoided eye contact as Steven stood with his hands in his pockets and watched Alex pull on the jeans and sweater he’d worn earlier in the day. 

“Better grab a jacket,” Steven told him. “It’s raining.”

Alex grabbed his jacket and followed Steven out of his door. After locking up he knocked on Tyler and Ondrej’s door while Steven went into what Alex could only assume was his own room down the hall. 

Tyler opened the door, shirtless with a couple of obvious red marks maring his chest. 

“You sent me to my room so you could  _ canoodle  _ with Ondrej?” Alex hissed. 

“First of all, I was not _canoodling _with Ondrej…”

“Was he canoodling you?” Steven asked, innuendo oozing from him. 

Tyler and Alex both jumped, neither of them had noticed him approaching. 

“What do you two want?” Tyler snapped. 

“He found our stuff,” Alex said gesturing to Steven with his thumb. “You have to look at it.”

Tyler huffed and said, “Give me a second to get dressed.”

“They were canoodling,” Steven assured Alex with a nod. 

Alex nodded. He wanted to ask Steven how he’d gotten down the hall, without either of them noticing him, in what must have been just seconds but clearly he was too busy chirping Tyler to notice Steven. 

Tyler reappeared quickly, Alex assumed he didn’t want to leave him alone with Steven any longer than he had to. 

Tyler drove as they followed Steven to an old farm and drove around the back, right up to an old barn. There were several Guards mulling around with three men, one who looked in his seventies, one his forties, and the last was probably still in school. 

“The middle guy there is the one who tried to warn us off,” Tyler told Alex, tilting his head toward the observing men. “Declan Brennan.”

“I recognize the older two, the old man and my grandfather had something of a rivalry that dates back to when they were in school together. He was even suspected in his disappearance but I never believed he was capable of something like that. Our families have some kind of history my dad wouldn’t let my grandfather tell me about,” Alex explained. “This is their family farm.”

They got out of the SUV and met Steven, who was talking with the Guards. 

“This is Guard Brennan, this is his granda’s farm. He remembered your family’s name from when he was young and decided to come talk to his granda and uncle about the missing equipment and they admitted to having it. We just need you to confirm so we can make an arrest.”

Alex glanced over at the teenager in the group and realized he must have been the toddler who loved to follow him around in his own teenage years when he came to visit his grandfather here. 

“Do we have to press charges?” Alex asked. 

Steven shook his head. “You don’t have to, but something like this might happen again if you let it go.”

“Our families go way back,” Alex explained. Guard Brennan nodded in agreement. “I don’t want the kid in trouble because of a generations old rivalry he doesn’t really know anything about.”

“That would be much appreciated,” Guard Brennan said. “He’s a good kid, but we all know the kind of influence our das and grandas can have on us.”

Everyone standing nearby agreed. 

“We just want the equipment back, and for it to be left alone in the future,” Alex said. 

Steven and the Guards took them into the centuries old barn to identify their equipment and once they had, they helped them load it into the back of the SUV. 

Guard Brennan shook Alex’s hand. “Granda wants to talk to you before you leave. I don’t want this old feud to go any further so please don’t take anything he might say to heart. I want this to stop here.”

Alex agreed. “I always told my father and grandfather that this whole thing was stupid.”

Tyler stayed behind at the SUV with Steven as Alex walked over to the Brennans. 

“Do you remember me?” Alex asked the old man. 

He nodded. “Alexander.”

Alex nodded. 

“I remember you’re just as stubborn as your granda,” the old man added. 

Alex nodded again. 

“You’re going to end up where he is if you press on with this,” the old man pushed. 

“And where exactly is he?” Alex asked. 

“He’s in the Otherworld and you know it!” Bellowed Declan, tired of his father and Alex’s conversation. 

Alex and Guard Brennan scoffed. “There’s no such thing, uncle. And you shouldn’t be putting such things in Patty’s head.” He turned to his cousin. “Just because Granda and your Da say something doesn’t make it so. Alex’s granda has been missing for near fifteen years, one of the very few unsolved missing persons cases in this county. He’s just missing, not whisked off to the land of the faeries.”

The teenager looked unsure. He glanced between the men standing around him before turning his eyes to the ground. 

Alex looked at the old man again. “We’re doing this. We’re doing in a way that is respectful to those who believe, and I have just as much of a right to be here as you do.”

The old man’s face was hard, but he nodded. “You’ll get no more trouble from us. I’ll speak to the other families, but I can’t speak for them.”

Alex nodded. “Thank you.”

Throughout the week, Alex and his team set up their search area and coordinated with the park service to start exploring areas of interest in the caves, and not interrupt their tours too much.

Before they started digging Alex gathered his team to go over a few things.

“Don’t forget we’re excavating in an area that is still considered a religious site for some people in this community. Don’t disturb anyone who isn’t harming what we’re doing. Don’t enter any faerie rings.”

Everyone nodded along, even Brayden who knew nearly as much about this area as Alex did, and usually slept through Alex’s briefings.

“I have a few things to add,” Brayden said when Alex was done. “Don’t accept any gifts, especially food, from anyone who isn’t in this group right now. If someone who is in this group begins acting unlike themselves come see me or Alex.”

Alex nodded in agreement, even though he was confused. His rules had been about respecting the people who still believed in the old ways, Bray’s were more about avoiding faeries. Which was… weird but Alex wasn’t going to undermine him in front of the grad students. They knew he and Brayden were close and they always put up a united front on these overseas digs. 

Alex sent the them off to start digging in their own quadrants and he and Brayden settled into theirs. 

“Worried about aos sí?” Alex asked, using the Irish name for what was now commonly referred to as the Sidhe, Fae, or Faeries. 

Brayden shrugged. “You can never be too careful. Plus some of them are already spooked,” Brayden told him with a wink. 

Alex rolled his eyes and started removing the grass in his section. 

They found a village. An entire village. On the side of the hill that had obviously experienced landslides at some point in history. Exactly where Alex had always said there was one. 

History, and his grandfather, thought the village had been on the other side of the hill, closer to the modern day village but Alex had always had a... feeling. 

Steven had been stopping by the dig regularly. Alex told everyone that it was so he could keep an eye out for them, and their equipment, but Brayden and Tyler had decided that Steven liked Alex. 

Alex had to admit to himself, never to those two, that it did seem like Steven was expressing interest in him. He hardly ever interacted with anyone else in town when he was off duty. 

Publicly Bray made light of the situation with Steven but privately he didn’t seem to like him very much, and Steven seemed to feel the same way. 

They weren’t obvious about it but Alex had noticed that they gave each other a wide berth around the house. They seemed to establish an unspoken routine of not being on the same floor at the same time, except for bedtime. Steven never came to the kitchen to eat while Bray was there, they even used separate staircases. Alex didn’t understand, he’d never even seen them speak, much less have any sort of disagreement. 

Alex was startled out of his thoughts about his best friend and his, Steven when a gruff voice, with a thick brogue spoke from behind him. “You taking all this stuff back to Canada?”

Alex turned. It was Old Man Brennan, along with the patriarchs from several of the other families, including his grandfather’s cousin, the patriarch of the Killorn family. 

“No, of course not. These are property of County Sligo, although the government has offered to loan me a few pieces to have a small personal display to take with me.”

“We’ve heard talk of a museum here in the area,” Alex’s uncle, as he referred to him, John said. 

Alex nodded. “It’s been mentioned.”

“You going to have anything to do with it?” Uncle John asked. 

“Possibly,” Alex shrugged. “I’ll help curate the collection no matter where it goes.”

“We like the idea,” Old Man Brennan said. “Of the museum and of you making sure everything here is taken care of.”

Alex was surprised. He knew Uncle John stood behind him but he’d gotten quite a bit of resistance from the other families. 

“Well thank you,” Alex said, standing up. He offered his hand to Old Man Brennan, he shook it. Alex shook all their hands in turn. Alex was still shaking his head when they walked off down the hill. 

Brayden and the group of grad students gathered around Alex. 

“What was that about?” Ceddy asked. 

“I thought we were going to have to fight some old men for a minute,” Yanni added, making everyone laugh. 

“We have their blessing, finally,” Alex said. 

“It’s been two months,” Tyler said. “And we’re about the excavate an entire village on this hill.”

“Exactly, and now you’ll be able to get a decent cup of coffee to do it,” Alex said with a laugh. “I know our lives have been made a little more difficult around town but that should stop now.”

“Thank the gods,” Yanni muttered. “Can I go right now for coffee? Will the word have spread that fast?”

Alex agreed and everyone gave Yanni a coffee order. 

“I’m glad this happened now,” Brayden said to Alex once their little crowd had dispersed and Yanni had run off down the hill. “Our first group of undergrads will be here tomorrow.”

“Oh right,” Alex said, forgetful as always. “Did you find somewhere to put them?”

“One of the other B and B’s finally relented, now I know why. Jan and Nikita are staying there too, to keep an eye on them.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “We both know Nikita is moving in with Tyler and Ondrej as soon as he gets here.”

Brayden laughed. “Yeah probably.”

Brayden and Ceddy picked up the undergrads, as well as two additional grad students in Jan and Nikita, and brought them to the site in the early afternoon. 

Tyler saw them pull up and ran down the hill to fling himself into Nikita’s arms. Ondrej showed more restraint and just wrapped him in a tight hug once he’d climbed the hill, with Tyler on his back.

Alex whistled and everyone gathered around for introductions. 

There was Alex, but several of the other undergrads called out “Bou-Bou” when he introduced himself as that, Carter, Alex chose to ignore his nickname, a pair of brothers, Cal and Nolan, Taylor, Boris, and Ben. 

Alex and Brayden showed them around the site before sending them to the bed and breakfast to settle in, with instructions to meet them at a local pub for dinner.

Everyone went back to work until a voice startled Alex, for the second day in a row. This time he fell on his ass. 

“What are you doing tonight?”

Alex turned around to find Steven standing there. 

“Why can literally anyone sneak up on me?” Alex grumbled, looking up at Steven from the dirt. 

“I’m sorry!” Steven said, reaching his hand out to help Alex up. 

Steven helped brush the dirt off Alex’s pants. “It’s ok, there’s just been a lot of this going around.” 

Alex froze as he realized Steven had two fingers inside his pants, gripping his waistband and belt, and his other hand was on his ass. 

Tyler whistled from where he was working about thirty foot away. 

Steven laughed it off and finished cleaning Alex off. 

“So, what are you doing tonight?”

“I had babies,” Alex said, still not moving. 

Steven cocked his head. “What?”

“Baby, undergrads. Here. Feeding them dinner,” Alex stuttered. 

“Oh, you brought undergrads in to help uncover the village,” Steven said. 

Alex nodded. 

Steven continued. “And you’re having dinner with them tonight.”

Alex nodded again, still incredibly conscious of Steven’s fingers in his pants. 

“What about tomorrow?” Steven asked, removing his hand from Alex’s pants before needlessly straightening his shirt. 

“I’m not doing anything tomorrow, I mean,” Alex stuttered a little before gesturing around. “This. But for dinner, nothing.”

“Excellent,” Steven said, unfazed by Alex’s bumbling. “Dinner tomorrow night, it’s a date!”

Alex stood and watched, frozen, as Steven practically floated down the hill. 

Alex heard Tyler approaching but couldn’t tear his eyes off of Steven’s back to look at him. 

“Wow, that was brutal,” Tyler said. “Why does he want to go out with you? You can’t even form coherent sentences around him, even after a solid two months!”

“Rude,” Alex said shoving him. 

“I’m just saying, I don’t understand it.”

“Tyler, you once tried to sleep with me because your grade was a 98,” Alex said, finally turning to him and rolling his eyes. 

“I tried to sleep with you because my grade was a 98  _ and _ you’re hot,” Tyler said, rolling his eyes in return. “I guess he could want to go out with you just because you’re hot.”

Alex shoved Tyler, probably harder than necessary, but really, Tyler deserved it. 

Brayden was in Alex’s room while he was getting dressed for his date with Steven. 

“Where is he taking you?” Brayden asked. 

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask,” Steven sighed. That hadn’t been the first question Brayden had asked, or even the first time he’d asked it since he heard about the date. 

“Don’t let him buy, either go Dutch or you pay, ok?” Brayden said. “Promise me.”

“What?” Alex asked. “Why?”

Brayden got up to look through Alex’s closet. He pulled a shirt out and held it up to Alex. “Just promise me,” Brayden said. “I don’t want you beholden to him.”

Alex could tell it was important to Brayden, for whatever reason. “Ok, I promise.”

Brayden looked relieved. “Thank you. Wear this shirt it looks better on you.”

Brayden flopped back down on Alex’s bed and watched him finish getting ready. 

When there was a knock on Alex’s door Brayden pulled himself up and followed Alex to the door.

“Hi,” Alex said, breathless.

“Hi,” Steven said, flashing Alex a brilliant smile. “Ready?”

Alex noticed Steven looking over his shoulder and he could feel Brayden moving behind him. When he turned around Brayden was running a hand through his hair.

Alex mouthed, “What the fuck?”

Brayden just shrugged.

“Yes, I’m ready. Let’s go.” Alex said, picking up his jacket and throwing another confused look over his shoulder at Brayden before following Steven down the hallway.

Steven took to one of the only slightly fancy restaurants in the area. Most of the places were cafes or pubs, but this place had real tablecloths. 

Alex couldn’t believe how nervous he was, no person had ever affected him the way Steven does, even after two months. His hands were sweating as Steven pulled out his chair for him.

“Thank you,” Alex murmured. 

Steven took the seat across from him. “I’m glad you agreed to come out with me,” Steven said, beaming at Alex. “I’ve wanted to ask for a while, but I wasn’t entirely sure you were willing.”

Alex was surprised. “Really?” he asked. “I thought I was pretty obvious.”

Steven smiled. “Sometimes I was sure, and then sometimes you seemed to shy away from me. And Brayden doesn’t seem to like me much, and you two are close.”

“I’ll be completely honest,” Alex said, hesitating for a second. “You make me nervous, in a way no one else ever has.”

Alex had no idea why he’d admitted that.

Steven looked surprised. “Really?” Steven asked. He reached across the table to take Alex’s hand. “You shouldn’t be nervous around me.”

The waiter approached and Steven pulled his hand back after squeezing for a second. 

Alex relaxed almost immediately, nerves completely gone. 

Dinner went smoothly, way better than Alex was expecting, but he found himself able to be his usual charming self, something he hadn’t been able to do with Steven.

When it came time to pay, Alex insisted on paying, conscious of his promise to Brayden.

Steven drove them back to the bed and breakfast, holding Alex’s hand.

They climbed the stairs together, silently except for the groan of a few stairs. The house was quiet except for their foot falls and they didn’t want to disturb anyone. 

Alex paused at his door, leaning back against the wall. 

Steven moved in close to him. He cupped Alex cheek in his hand. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” Alex said, using Steven’s belt loops to pull him closer. 

Steven slid his hand to the back of Alex’s head and leaned in to press their lips together. 

Alex deepened the kiss and pulled Steven fully against him. Steven pressed him back against the wall. 

“Come inside,” Alex said as Steven pressed his lips to his neck. 

“You sure?” Steven asked, nipping at his ear. 

“Very very sure,” Alex told him, reaching over to open the door. 

Steven’s grin looked predatory as he followed Alex through the door. 

Alex kicked off his shoes and started unbuttoning his shirt before Steven had even shut the door behind himself. 

Steven joined him and then it was a race to see who could get naked first. 

Alex won easily and backed Steven to the edge of the bed. He pushed at his chest and Steven went down easily. 

Alex sunk to his knees between Steven’s feet and ran his palms up and down the inside of his thighs. 

Steven was half hard in the boxer briefs he hadn’t had a chance to strip off. Alex toyed with the band on them before asking, “Can I?”

Steven’s answer was to lift his hips to help Alex pull down his underwear. 

Alex threw them in the same general direction of the rest of Steven’s clothes before returning to running his hands up and down Steven’s thighs and looked up at him from between his lashes. He’d learned that from Tyler and it hadn’t failed to get him anything he’d wanted yet. 

Steven groaned. “You look so good down there.”

“Yeah?” Alex asked. Steven nodded. “Well if you want me to stay here grab me one of those pillows.”

Steven laughed and got a pillow from the head of the bed. Alex put it under his knees and turned his attention to Steven again. 

Steven was rock hard and Alex had hardly touched him. He started kissing his way up Steven’s right thigh and Steven’s hands were immediately on him, one hand in his hair and the other stroking his face. 

Alex thought about teasing him by kissing up his other thigh but the hand caressing his face was shaking so Alex licked up the length of his cock before taking the head in his mouth and sinking down. 

Steven’s hand tightened in his hair, not quite painfully. He said something under his breath that Alex didn’t quite catch, but he wasn’t entirely sure it was English. 

Alex swallowed around him and Steven let out a squeak. 

“You’re so good, gods Alex, you’re so fucking good,” Steven said, petting Alex’s face and running his thumb over Alex’s bottom lip, which was stretched tight around his cock. 

His words went right to Alex’s own cock and he reached down to squeeze himself as he bobbed sloppily on Steven’s cock. 

“Alex this isn’t going to last, you’re so fucking good baby,” Steven managed to say. 

Alex doubled down, swirling his tongue around the head before taking him into his throat and swallowing, gagging just a little. 

Steven’s hand tightened in Alex’s hair again and his hips stuttered as he came down Alex’s throat.

Alex coughed a little after he swallowed down what he could and pulled off. 

Steven stroked his face again. “Sorry about the no warning,” he said, breathless. 

Alex smiled up at him. “It’s ok,” Alex told him, voice rough. 

Steven groaned again and flopped back onto the bed. 

Alex stood up and threw the pillow back to the head of the bed before walking over to the mini fridge in his room and grabbing a bottle of water. He took a few swallows as he walked back to the bed. 

Steven was doing grabby hands at him so Alex handed him the water. 

Steven laughed. “I meant you but thanks,” he said before taking a drink of the water himself. 

Alex laughed and climbed onto the bed as Steven moved to the top and set the water on the nightstand. “Come here,” he said, holding his arms out to Alex. 

Alex practically threw himself down on Steven, who wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a kiss. 

Steven arranged them so he could get a hand on Alex’s cock. He found Alex’s cock dripping. 

“You like sucking my cock that much?” Steven asked, nipping at Alex’s neck. 

Alex nodded, unable to form any words as Steven tightened his grip around him. 

“Good, you’re so good at it. So good for me,” Steven purred in his ear, speeding up his hand as Alex worked his hips. 

Alex was taken by surprise by his own orgasm, coming over Steven’s hand and both of their stomachs. 

“Fuck,” Alex said, softly but emphatically. 

Steven nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

Alex rolled off of Steven onto his back and looked towards his attached bathroom, willing himself to be a good host and get up to grab a rag to clean them up. 

“I’ll get a rag,” Steven said, climbing out of the bed.

“Oh thank god,” Alex said while Steven laughed. “I don’t think my legs are working.”

Steven cleaned them up and settled back into bed with Alex, who wrapped himself around Steven. 

It was then that Alex noticed two scars on Steven’s chest, one just below his right clavicle, the other just above. 

Alex traced one, then the other. “What happened?”

Steven kissed him on the forehead. “Hazards of the job.”

Alex hummed, before leaning across Steven to kiss each of the scars in turn. 

Steven shivered. 

“Sensitive?” Alex asked. 

“Yeah,” Steven said, a little breathless. “Unless you’re ready for round two leave them alone.”

Alex grinned and kissed Steven, on the mouth this time, before settling into his side to cuddle. 

After a moment Steven said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

Alex picked his head up to look at Steven after his serious tone. “You have a spouse and kids in Toronto?”

“What? No!” Steven laughed. “No spouses, no kids, Toronto or anywhere else.”

“Ok, good,” Alex said, settling himself again. 

“It’s about your grandfather’s case,” Steven said. “We’re going to be reopening it.”

“What? Really,” Alex asked, head popping up off the pillow again. 

Steven nodded. “Some new evidence has come to light and it’s enough to reopen it properly, not just as a cold case file.”

Alex opened his mouth to ask about the new evidence but Steven cut him off. “I can’t tell you what it is, not yet.”

Alex deflated a little. “Ok.”

“Tomorrow I’m going to need to interview you, properly. I’ll come up to the dig site, I want you to show me everything you remember.”

Alex nodded. “Ok. No problem.”

Steven gently pushed his head back to the pillow.

“I was going to talk to you about reading over the casefile, but I could never work up the nerve,” Alex said. 

“You, and your grandfather, were the talk of the town when I first arrived. After I met you I pulled the file and started reviewing and reinterviewing people,” Steven explained. 

Alex squeezed him. “Thank you.”

They laid in silence for a moment, both drifting towards sleep. 

“Wait!” Alex said, startling Steven. “Is this, us, going to be an issue with the investigation?”

“Nah,” Steven said. “You’re a witness, not a suspect. And the whole precinct has thought there was something going on between us since the moment you arrived. They wouldn’t allow me to work on the case if it would be an issue.”

“Ok,” Alex said. “Good.”

The next day, true to his word, Steven showed up at the dig with Guard Brennan to officially tell him they had reopened his grandfather’s disappearance case. 

Brayden joined them, eyeing Steven suspiciously, as Alex walked the two officers through the last day he’d seen his grandfather, taking them to the exact spot in the caves where Alex had last seen him. 

Steven and Guard Brennan, who’d asked Alex to call him Thomas, inspected the walls in the area. 

“There aren’t any trap doors or anything,” Alex told them. “These caves have been thoroughly inspected for anything like that.”

Brayden agreed. “More than once, it was his grandfather’s specialty, and mine as well.”

“So there are no,” Steven paused. “Anomalies, in the area.”

“Not with the walls, floor, or ceiling,” Brayden said. 

Alex thought that was a weird way to say it when he could have just said no, but he didn’t say thing to Brayden about it. 

Steven and the Guard thanked them for their time and left, after Steven pressed a sweet kiss to Alex’s lips. 

When they returned to the mouth of the cave all of the grad students, and undergrads were waiting for them while Tyler tried to shoo them off back to their stations. 

“What’s going on?” Ceddy asked, as soon as they appeared. 

“Detective Stamkos and Guard Brennan are reopening my grandfather’s disappearance from here fifteen years ago. We were just going over what I remember from that time.”

Everyone nodded and Tyler was able to get them back to work before hugging Alex tight. 

“I know it’s hard for you to talk about but if you need to, with this investigation bringing it all to the surface, I’m here for you. Anytime. Middle of the night, whatever.”

“You mean I can drag you out of bed with your boyfriends?” Alex asked with a grin. 

“For this, yes,” Tyler agreed. 

Alex hugged him again. “Thank you.”

Tyler returned to his assigned area and Alex went with Bray back to theirs. 

Brayden threw his arm across Alex’s shoulders. “I’m here for you too, whatever you need.”

“Thanks bud,” Alex said. “And thanks for sticking with me today.”

Brayden gave him a toothy grin. “No problem.”

Alex would have liked to spend every moment away from the dig site with Steven but he had a responsibility to keep an eye on everyone who was there. He tried to go to dinner with a group three times a week, trying to make sure everyone came at least once. 

Jan was doing a good job keeping an eye on all of the undergrads by himself, because just as Alex had predicted Nikita had moved into Ondrej and Tyler’s room upon arrival. 

Alex had been contacted recently by another former student of his, Erik, who had been on a dig in Scotland but it had just finished and he’d heard about what Alex had found and was interested in coming to help. 

Erik was working on his doctorate and was specializing in the same time period so Alex was considering bringing him over and having him room with Jan, since Nikita wasn’t. They were running out of rooms in town to put their people in. 

They were out to dinner one night and Jan was sitting next to Alex. 

“Hey,” Alex said to get his attention. “Do you know Erik Cernak?”

Alex was fairly sure they’d taken one of his classes at the same time. 

Jan choked on his beer. 

“Yeah, yeah I know him,” he sputtered. 

Ondrej was next to Jan. “He sure does,” Ondrej laughed. 

“What?” Alex asked.

Tyler giggled from Ondrej’s other side. 

Ceddy was across from Tyler. “Oh, was he the one with the thing at that party that time?”

“Yes!” Tyler and Ondrej said together. Ceddy and Yanni burst out laughing. 

Jan buried his face in his hands. 

Alex looked to Brayden who shrugged. 

“Ok, well I need to know if it’s ok to bring him over from Ireland. I was going to have him room with you since your roommate abandoned you.”

There was a resounding “Yes!” from everyone but Jan, who stared at him with wide eyes. 

“Jan?” Alex said. 

Slowly, Jan nodded. “Yes, it’s ok.”

Everyone but Jan, Brayden, and Alex burst out laughing. 

Ondrej was shaking his head. “No, that would be a terrible idea.”

“Jan?” Alex asked again. “I won’t invite him if it’s going to be a problem. I wanted him to stay with you so he could help keep an eye on the kids.” Alex gestured you the far end of the table where the undergrads were. 

Jan nodded more decisively. “Yes, he’s very good, he should come.”

Most of their end of the table burst out laughing again. 

Alex sighed, but nodded. He could tell by the look on Jan’s face he wasn’t going to change his mind. 

Later that night Brayden followed Alex into the bathroom at the bar they’d moved to. 

“Any idea what was up with Jan and Cernak?” Alex asked Brayden. 

Brayden shook his head. “I tried to get Yanni to tell me but Ceddy gave him a look and he stopped talking.”

“Do you think I should bring him over? He’s just sort of hanging out in Edinburgh until he hears from me.”

Brayden considered for a moment. “We could really use him. And Jan looked pretty resolute. Do you want me to try and talk to him tomorrow?”

Alex nodded. “I told Erik I would call him by lunch tomorrow so try to get him in the morning.”

Hours later, back at the house, Alex was about to get in bed when he drunkenly realized he should try to drink some water. He checked his fridge but it was empty so he headed down the stairs to the kitchen. 

He paused because he heard someone moving around in there. 

“Have you noticed anything weird about Steven?” Brayden asked. 

“You mean like the fangs and claws?” Ondrej asked making Tyler giggle. 

“Yeah, those,” Brayden said. 

“You can’t be prejudice about fangs and claws, you have your own,” Ondrej said, indignantly. 

Tyler giggled even harder. “You guys are  ** _drunk_ ** !”

Alex turned and crept back up the stairs and the next morning he didn’t remember anything about it. 

After the thumbs up from Brayden the next morning Alex arranged for Erik to join them in Ireland. 

Jan convinced Brayden to go pick Erik up, not trusting any of his fellow grad students alone with Erik, in case they brought up whatever it was none of them would tell Alex and Brayden. 

When Erik arrived Alex met he and Brayden at the bottom of the hill. Erik was a doctoral candidate, like Brayden, and theoretically this dig could be the subject of his doctoral thesis. 

Alex gave him the tour, bringing him to the remnants of the village they were just starting to uncover last. 

“Holy shit, Alex. I’m going to have to start my thesis over,” Erik said. 

Alex laughed. 

“This is absolutely a career maker, not that you need it, but for Brayden and I. Even any of the grad students you have here,” Erik said, still gapping at the village. 

Alex agreed. “You’re right. And we have an amazing team here. They’re a bit, uh, absolutely fucking insane? But really good at what they do.”

Erik laughed. “Well that's interesting to hear.”

Alex yelled for everyone to group up. He introduced them all to Erik, leaving Jan for last. 

“And last, this is Jan. He’s going to be your roommate,” Alex said, watching Erik’s face for any sign of recognition but he didn’t even see a flicker. 

Red faced, Jan greeted him in either Czech or Slovakian, Alex wasn’t sure which. 

Erik’s face lit up. “We took one of Alex’s classes together!” 

“Yes,” Jan agreed while the other grad students giggled. 

“It’s late enough, Jan,” Alex said. “Why don’t you take Erik back and let him get settled in?”

Alex hoped that they would get over whatever was going on, but until then he would try to keep Jan away from them. 

Alex hadn’t seen Steven nearly enough in the past two weeks. They’d seen each other for just a moment that morning while getting coffee in the kitchen and Alex invited him to his room when he got back from his late night. 

“It’s going to be late,” Steven said. “Are you sure you don’t mind? I don’t want to disturb you.”

Alex winked at him. “I want you to disturb me.”

“Oh? You don’t say?” Steven said, pinning Alex to the counter. 

“Please don’t  _ disturb _ him in a public space,” Tyler said, walking in the kitchen with Nikita on his heels. 

Alex giggled until Steven kissed him goodbye. 

Late that night Steven crept into Alex’s room in his underwear, hair still slightly damp from his shower, and slid into bed with Alex, wrapping his arm around him and kissing his neck. 

Steven almost didn’t want to wake Alex up because he looked so peaceful but he also wanted more than the little stolen touches they’d had in the past two weeks since their first night together. 

“Wake up, darling,” Steven said, nipping at Alex’s ear. 

Alex stirred, stretching and arching back into Steven. 

“You look good enough to eat,” Steven said, biting Alex’s neck. 

Alex moaned. 

“Are you with me?” Steven asked, running his hand down Alex’s stomach, realizing he was naked. 

“Mmhmm,” Alex sighed. 

“What do you want tonight?” Steven asked, wrapping his hand around Alex’s cock. 

“Anything. Everything. Whatever you want,” Alex said rubbing his ass against Steven’s rapidly filling cock. 

“How do you feel about fucking me? We don’t have to if you’re not into it, or if you’re too tired,” Steven said. 

“Yes. Yes I want to,” Alex said immediately, working his hips in counterpoint to Steven’s hand. “I got some supplies.”

“Presumptuous,” Steven said, squeezing Alex’s cock. 

Alex gasped then laughed while Steven kissed his neck. 

Steven let go of Alex and rolled over towards the nightstand. “Ok, where are these supplies?”

“Second drawer,” Alex said, rolling to his back. 

Steven popped up with lube and a condom. 

Alex took the lube and arranged himself between Steven’s legs, on his knees. 

“Ready?” Alex asked, pouring lube onto his fingers. 

Steven nodded, spreading his bent legs wider to give Alex better access. 

Alex rubbed softly at Steven’s hole before easing a finger inside, in no mood to tease. 

“More,” Steven said after just a moment. 

Alex didn’t argue, he just worked a second finger in, scissoring them almost immediately. 

“I’m ready,” Steven said, much quicker than Alex would have liked, but he wasn’t in any mood to argue. 

Alex picked up the condom from where Steven has dropped it. He tore it open with his teeth and rolled it on with his clean hand, while toying with Steven’s rim with his lube covered hand before slicking himself up. 

“Come on,” Steven panted, stroking his own cock. 

Alex pushed in quickly, making them both moan at the long slick slide. 

“Hard?” Steven asked. “Please?”

Alex had a fleeting thought for the antique four poster bed they were in then decided he didn’t care if he had to pay to replace it, he wouldn’t deny Steven anything he wanted, least of all a hard fucking.

Alex did a couple of soft strokes before draping Steven’s knees over his elbows and pushing into him, roughly, over and over. 

He could tell when he got the angle right because Steven cried out so loud Alex was sure he’d wake the entire house, Ceddy and Yanni next door at the least. But Alex couldn’t find it in him to care too much, but he did shush Steven. 

“Quiet baby,” Alex told him without missing a beat. 

Steven nodded, lips clamped shut and hand over his own mouth to hold in the moans and squeals while Alex fucked him relentlessly. 

Alex knew there was no way he could keep this pace up for long so he pushed Steven’s hand away from his cock and wrapped his own lube covered one around it, stroking Steven in time to his thrusts. 

Steven took his hand off his mouth and managed to pant, “Gonna come.”

“Good,” Alex said. “Me too.”

Steven spurted over his stomach just before Alex came. 

Alex all but collapse on Steven after dropping his legs, kissing him, hard and desperate. 

They kissed until Alex was sliding out of Steven and he had to take care of the condom. 

Alex came back from the bathroom with a warm rag and found Steven already asleep. He tried to clean him up gently but Steven woke up. 

“I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Alex said. 

“It’s ok,” Steven said. “I need to tell you something anyway.”

Alex threw the rag in his hand back into the bathroom, enjoying the hollow wet thunk that meant he’d made it into the bathtub. He climbed back into bed and settled in facing Steven. 

“There aren’t many unsolved disappearances in this county,” Steven said. 

Alex nodded, he knew the figures from this county, he’d kept up with them the last fifteen years. 

“In fact, your grandfather’s is the most recent, and the next one was fifteen years before that, the next another fifteen years,” Steven said. 

“Wait. Fifteen years? Between all of them?” Alex asked, interest clearly piqued. 

“Almost to the day,” Steven told him. 

“It’s less than two weeks until the fifteenth anniversary,” Alex told Steven, sitting up. He felt a little wild, like he needed to do something right then before someone else ended up missing. 

“I know,” Steven said, reaching out to gently guide Alex back to the bed. “There’s more.”

“More?” Alex asked, looking up at where Steven was leaving over him. 

“Yes, these disappearances go back every fifteen years as far back as we can trace. And it’s always someone from one of the old families, Killorn, Brennan, Gallagher, MacGowan, and the rest. They always go missing from near the hill or in the cave.”

“Is there a pattern?” Alex asked. 

Steven shook his head. “Not that we can find, just every fifteen years but no pattern with the families.”

“Are there any old families that are left out?”

“No, we checked that too. We even checked out some of the old families in the neighboring counties,” Steven told him. 

Alex lay there looking up at the ceiling, mind reeling. Was there a family of serial killers? Was this some kind of pagan ritual they conducted on a fifteen year interval?

“There’s a four day spread I want you to shut the dig down for. Over the solstice,” Steven said. 

“What? No, I can’t. We won’t have long before the ground starts freezing, four days is a massive amount of time,” Alex protested. 

“Someone could be in danger,” Steven insisted. 

“No, just me. If I stay away from the dig it should be fine. Brayden and Erik can run it for me,” Alex insisted. 

“Just because it’s only been someone from the old families up until now doesn’t mean that whoever or whatever is doing this won’t take someone else given the chance,” Steven said. 

Alex paused. “What do you mean ‘whatever’?”

Steven laughed. “You know how people are around here. Sometimes it gets in your head.”

Alex snorted. “There are no aos sí coming for me at the solstice.”

Steven laughed. “Just go to sleep.”

Alex did what Steven asked and shut down the site. The second night they were off Alex remembered that he left several artifacts in the corner of one of the caves that he didn’t want to be accidentally disturbed by a tour going through the next morning. 

It was very unlike him to do so but Steven has shown up and kissed him silly in that corner and he’d forgotten to pick them up. 

Steven hadn’t come home and Brayden was out with Ceddy and Yanni, and there was no way he was knocking on Tyler’s door at this time of night so Alex climbed into the SUV alone to drive up to the hill. 

He didn’t think twice about the disappearances he just wanted to correct his mistake and secure the artifacts. 

Alex had been to dozens of dig sites in the dead of night so he wasn’t fazed by the fact the only light coming from the stars overhead. 

He had a flashlight in his hand, but he didn’t have a reason to use it until he got inside the cave. 

Alex hesitated at the mouth of the cave, he had an odd feeling, but he pressed on anyway. The chamber he needed was only the third from the entrance and he would be in and out in under two minutes. 

Alex walked through the first chamber and was immediately disoriented. He stopped and turned around only to find the arch he’d just walked through, and should be able to see the mouth of the cave from, was gone. 

“What the fuck?” Alex said out loud to himself, his voice echoing back to him. 

He reached out and touched the wall and found it solid. 

“What the fuck?” Alex said again, sweeping his flashlight around the room. 

There weren’t any exits. 

Alex took a deep breath. He’d been in many caves that at first glance didn’t looks like they had an exit. 

He fished the knife out of his pocket and made a mark on the wall. He started following the wall, dragging his right hand along the wall. It only took him about thirty seconds to complete the circle of the room and come back to his mark on the wall. 

“ _ What the  _ ** _fuck_ ** ?” Alex said again. 

He slumped back against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. 

Alex was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. He turned off the flashlight and leaned his head back against the wall, telling himself he would close his eyes for just a minute. 

Alex was woken up by a falling sensation. He felt his ass hit the ground. 

He looked around wildly and found himself no longer in the cave, exactly. It seemed like it might have been a bigger cave, with a forest in it, and a throne room?

Alex took in a very dignified looking woman sitting on a throne. He was pretty sure she was a woman, there was something otherworldly about her. 

“Alexander,” she said calmly, but she looked surprised. “You’ve finally decided to join us?”

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Alex asked, looking around again. “Where am I?”

He saw Steve, he was pretty sure it was Steven, he looked different somehow, Alex couldn’t put a finger on it

“Alex?” Steven said. 

“Steven? What is going on?” Alex finally moved to stand up and was surrounded by men with swords. 

“Don’t try to get up,” Steven called. 

Alex sat back down slowly. 

“Alexander, you are very intelligent. Can you not figure out where you are?” The woman- the queen?- asked him. “Your grandfather figured it out almost immediately.”

The guards parted so Alex could see her gesture to a figure lying chained to her throne. 

“Granda!” Alex said, trying to crawl to him but getting kicked back by the guards. 

The figure on the ground was unmistakably his grandfather, but skinny and sickly looking. 

“What have you done to him?” Alex asked when his grandfather hardly responded to his call. 

“So full of questions, aren’t you Alexander?” The Queen said. “Tell me, have you deciphered where you are?”

Alex paused. He’d never been a believer but there was no denying where he was and who these people, aos sí, were. 

He glanced around. “The Unseelie Court,” Alex said, begrudgingly. 

“Alexander, have you come to take your rightful place in my Court?” The Queen asked. 

“What? Why would I do that?” Alex asked. 

“You must have sensed it, you are aos sí! Unseelie! Of royal blood!” The Queen cried. 

Alex looked at Steven, hoping for some kind of explanation but Steven didn’t meet his eye. 

“I’m not aos sí,” Alex said. “I think there’s some kind of mistake. 

The Queen began laughing, and the court around her joined in. 

“He truly believes that,” the Queen said. 

She stopped laughing suddenly and the Court did the same. 

“You will join me Alexander. Join your power with my Court and live for eternity,” the Queen said, gesturing around to the Court. 

“I don’t have any powers-“ Alex started, but was cut off by the Queen jumping from her throne. 

“If you will not join with me then you will be locked up until you can be made to see reason!”

With that several of the guards grabbed Alex and dragged him kicking and scratching from the middle of the room. 

“Don’t fight them, Alex,” he heard Steven call. 

He wasn't in the mood to listen to his, apparently fae, boyfriend and fought the whole way. 

Alex saw the dark, damp looking cells that looked like they were grown from the forest coming into view and felt a blow on the back of his head and saw his vision go dark. 

When Alex came to be was laying on the floor and could see Steven sitting on the floor opposite his cell. 

“Why are you here?” Alex croaked, voice dry as he sat up. 

“I’m aos sí,” Steven said. 

Alex coughed. “I figured that much out, I mean why are you here right now?”

“To get you out of here,” Steven said. Alex gaped at him. “Getting your grandfather free is going to be the tough part. I’ve been trying to work that out for quite a while, but I think I’ve finally got it.”

Alex looked around, he didn’t see anyone else but it seemed weird that Steven would discuss this so openly. 

“There’s no one around,” Steven said when he saw Alex looking. “She will leave you here for days until you’re on the brink of starvation.”

Alex coughed again and Steven picked up a bottle of water sitting next to him that Alex hadn’t seen. 

“Oh no, I’m not drinking that,” Alex said. “If there’s anything I do know it’s that I’m not supposed to eat or drink here.”

“Alex, we don’t have bottled water here. I brought it from the human realm,” Steven said calmly. 

“And why should I believe you?” Alex started ranting. 

Steven shushed him. “Just drink the water Alex. I don’t need you running around coughing while we’re trying to get out of here.”

Steven got up and held the water bottle through the cell door. 

Alex took it, reluctantly. “What’s the plan?”

Steven looked excited that Alex was on board. “The only portal out is in the throne room. I know how to activate it, that’s no problem. But she usually moves your grandfather from the throne room to her chambers. And I haven’t been able to sneak any food from the human realm here so I can break the spell of the aos sí food. Going back to the human realm will be easy I just have to get food past security,” Steven explained. 

Alex patted his pocket before reaching in and pulling out a crush granola bar. “Will this work?” he asked. 

Steven marveled. “Those idiots didn’t search you.”

“I’ve still got my pocket knife too if that will help,” Alex said, before finally opening the bottle of water and taking a drink.

“I have to go make some arrangements,” Steven said. “Try to get some sleep and I will be back in a few hours to get you out of here.”

Alex agreed and Steven ran off. 

Alex was pretty sure he had a concussion so he wasn’t sure if he should be sleeping or not but the prospect of sitting there alone for hours. 

Alex pulled off his jacket and used it to pillow his head. He couldn’t lay on his back because of the knot that had formed there. 

Surprisingly he drifted off quickly and had terrifying dreams of being chased by creatures with long claws and pointy teeth. 

Alex was started awake by Steven calling his name. 

“It’s time to go. Hurry!” Steven said. 

Alex jumped up and pulled on his jacket as he ran across the cell, ignoring his head spinning as he did so. 

Alex paused at the door because Steven was still fiddling with the lock. He looked, different. His teeth were sharper, his fingers ended in small sharp claws, and he looked exhausted. 

“Are you ok?” Alex asked, somehow still concerned for Steven even though Alex was pretty sure he had something to do with this whole mess. 

“Yeah,” Steven said finally getting the door open. “I had to bribe a guard with power. I might need to borrow some from you to break your grandfather’s chains.”

“I don’t have any power,” Alex hissed following Steven carefully down the corridor. 

“You do, you just don’t know it,” Steven whispered back before putting his finger over his lips to silence Alex. 

They crept through forest halls until they were back in the throne room. It was strangely empty considering how many people, beings, had been there earlier. 

Alex’s grandfather was still chained to the throne and he looked unconscious. Steven led him straight to his grandfather and put his hands on the chains. Up close the chains were actually tree roots woven together. 

“Granda,” Alex whispered, taking his hand. 

“You have to feed him,” Steven said, a weird glow emanating from his hands. 

His grandfather opened his eyes, when he recognized Alex his eyes went wide. 

“I need you to eat this,” Alex said, opening the granola bar he’d fished from his pocket. 

His grandfather shook his head. “Alex you need to leave right-“

Alex cut him off by shoving a chunk of the bar in his mouth. “Chew, swallow.” His grandfather did as he was told. 

Steven grabbed Alex’s arm. “I’m sorry, this is probably going to hurt. But I can feel some getting close.”

It felt like what Alex imagined getting struck by lightning felt like. A brighter light came out of Steven’s hand and the woven root chain fell away from his grandfather’s leg. 

They picked up his grandfather because he couldn’t stand. 

“I need you again to help open the portal,” Steven said. 

Alex was still buzzing but he extended his free hand to to Steven just as several guards ran into the room from different directions. 

Steven grabbed his hand and the electrical shock feeling was even stronger this time. 

A glow lit up around all three of them as the guards ran towards them, hands outstretched, trying to grab them. 

Just as one was about to close his hand around Alex’s arm the light grew so bright it whited out everything and the next thing Alex knew his feet slammed into the ground and his knees almost buckled. 

They were back in the caves and the sun was shining through the arched opening. 

“Let’s go,” Steven said, pulling them towards the door. “We’ll be safe outside.”

“How long were we gone?” Alex asked as they sat down on the grass outside the cave. 

“A few hours. Here,” Steven said. 

“I have water in the car, Granda, let me go get it,” Alex told his grandfather quietly, patting his frail hand. 

Now that Alex could look at him in the dawn light he saw that his grandfather hadn’t aged a day, he just looked malnourished. 

Alex hurried down the hill, body still buzzing from the apparent magic running through it, and back up with several bottles of water. 

“How are we going to explain this,” Alex asked Steven. 

“We just say we found him, and you say you don’t remember anything,” Steven told them. 

Alex saw a little bit of the old twinkle in his grandfather’s eye. “I don’t remember a thing.”

“We should probably get him to a hospital,” Steven said. “And get that bump on your head checked out.”

Together they helped his grandfather down the hill. 

Epilogue

Two days later they were in Alex’s sitting room at the bed and breakfast and they’d just explained to Brayden, Alex, and the grad students the real story of what had happened to them. 

Steven explained he was one of the few very young aos sí, he and Alex were nearly the same age and Steven had a bit of a crush on Alex when he’d been in Ireland as a teenager. When he found out that Alex was coming back the Queen had tasked him with bringing Alex to her, to add more of his family’s power to her collective. 

Steven had posed as a Toronto detective but never had any intention of bringing Alex to the Unseelie Court. He loved him and wouldn’t see him taken prisoner. 

Then Alex had fallen in there himself while Steven was there giving the Queen a report on his progress. 

“Wait,” Ondrej said. “Is that why some people have pointy teeth and claws and stuff? Because they’re not people?”

“What?” Everyone in the room said together. 

“Yeah, like Steven and Jan look alike, with all their pointy teeth and dark claws and Alex looks like them sometimes, usually after he’s spent time with Steven. Then Brayden has different teeth and claws. And Yanni has wings sometimes. And Erik is just. I don’t know. He’s different too but I don’t know how to explain it.”

Alex gaped at all of them and then turned to Brayden. 

“What?” Alex asked. 

Brayden shrugged with a smile, showing off his elongated canine teeth. 

“ _ What?” _ Alex said again

“You went to the Unseelie Court and rescued your grandfather who had been a prisoner for fifteen years, finding out that you’re part aos sí in the process and your best friend being a werewolf is what’s tripping you up?” Steven asked, laughing. 

“A werew-,” Alex started, rubbing his face. “And what are you two? And what is Pally?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yanni said sweetly. 

“None of your business,” Erik said. 

“Pally just has The Sight,” Brayden explained. “He can see beings for what they really are.”

“Beings,” Alex said rubbing his face amid the laughter of his friends. 

  
  
  



End file.
